


Gifts

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Cinderella (1950)
Genre: F/M, Fencing, Gift Giving, Married Couple, Married Life, Post-Canon, Swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24204274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: When Cinderella's blue eyes first glanced upon the blade, they widened with a look of utter surprise and joy.“It’s a sword.”
Relationships: Prince Charming/Cinderella (Disney)
Kudos: 33





	Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slight sequel to "Lessons," where Cinderella first takes up fencing, but you can read this without reading that beforehand. 
> 
> Also, I wrote this because Lessons got quite a few kudos. I guess there's just mass appeal in the idea of Cinderella wielding a sword.

It took several months of lessons and training for Cinderella to develop her skills as a fencer. Like most things in her life, she approached it with hard work and patience. Eventually, her footwork became a lot more refined and balanced, her strikes became more swift and precise. 

None of this was lost on Christopher. Whenever they sparred, the sound of their blades clashing would resonate into every corner of the gymnasium. Her footwork was graceful, like that of a dance. Her balance was impeccable, perhaps even better than his. Her handling of her sword was swift, and she seemed to favour a good mix of cuts and thrusts, with it not being clear which attack she preferred the most.

Once Cinderella had mastered the art of wielding a blunted practice sabre, Christopher thought it was best to introduce her to the other swords in his arsenal. 

It was fair to say that Christopher was an avid sword enthusiast. Most of his travels had involved studying under the finest swordsmen in the land. He found himself always purchasing a blade or two after visiting every kingdom. His travels in Italy and Spain showed him the techniques required to use a rapier, and his adventures in England had introduced him to the hefty backsword, which ended up becoming his weapon of choice. Although swordsmanship was a dying trend in the age of firearms, Christopher could still appreciate the beauty in a finely crafted blade and the skill it required to wield it. 

He had currently amassed a collection of lovely blades, some were antiques from his ancestors and reputable dealers, others commissioned from the most experienced blacksmiths in the continent. 

In there, Christopher showed Cinderella his collection of elegant rapiers, simplistic smallswords, and hefty sabers. On the more robust side of things, Christopher had also amassed some basket-hilted backswords, beefy-bladed broadswords, and rather slender longswords. 

In a perfect world, he would have liked to wield the knightly swords of his ancestors, but even his father would remark that blades like that were terribly out of fashion.

A few months into Cinderella’s adventures in swordplay, an idea emerged in Christopher’s head. All these fencing sessions had involved wielding his blunted practice swords, which despite their lack of sharpness, were very suitable for their intended purposes. They were great for sparring matches, but Christopher thought it was fitting to get his wife a blade of her own, something that was tailored to her proportions and fighting style. 

So he sent a letter out to an old friend in Italy, a blacksmith who helped him craft some of the finest blades in his toybox. In the letter, Christopher described everything he could about Cinderella’s fencing style — such as her dislike of dress swords and spadroons, her preference for sabres and smallswords, and her tendency to focus on defense and precision instead of brute strength. 

The line of communication went back and forth for a while, with the blacksmith sending over several sketches and blueprints of potential sabres and Christopher taking time out of his day to examine them. He would always write some feedback and enclose it in an envelope to send back. 

Then on a spring afternoon, a wooden crate was delivered to the palace. It was immediately sent up to Christopher’s study, where he opened it to evaluate the sword inside. After taking a good look at the weapon, he ended up leaving the room with a smile on his face.

Fittingly enough, Christopher found Cinderella in the gymnasium. When he opened the door, he came upon the sight of his wife practicing some thrusts with a blunted smallsword. With a kind of graceful rigor, she would lunge and force the business end of her weapon into the torso of a dummy. Whenever she struck it, the contraption would quiver just a bit from the impact. Once that was done, Cinderella would retract her blade, step back, and prepare the next deadly strike. 

In that moment, Christopher couldn’t help but find her to seem rather… attractive. 

When she noticed her husband in the room, Cinderella stopped her practice. She stood up straight, kept her sword low, and gave him a playful grin. With her free hand, she wiped some beads of sweat off her forehead.

“Hey, you.” 

“Hey,” Christopher greeted. He looked over to the dummy, which was effectively battered after his wife’s recent attack on it. “Practicing more, are you?”

“What can I say? I got a lot of energy.” 

As per usual, she walked up to her husband, got up on her tippy toes, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. After doing so, her attention was suddenly brought to the item he was hiding behind his back.

With an eyebrow raised in curiosity, Cinderella asked, “So what do you have there?” 

“It’s a surprise,” Christopher teased. 

“Oh?”

Christopher grinned cheekily, “Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

Cinderella nodded and did what she was told — she placed the blunted smallsword on the windowsill of the gymnasium, then stood in front of her husband with both eyes shut and both hands open in front of her. 

Gently, Christopher brought the weapon forward. He took the sword out of the scabbard, then gently placed the handle into Cinderella’s palm. He carefully placed her fingers around it until the weapon was firmly in her grasp.

“Okay, open your eyes.” 

Cinderella did so, and when her blue eyes first glanced upon the blade, they widened with a look of utter surprise and joy.

“It’s a sword.” 

“It’s  _ your _ sword.” 

With an air of excitement, Cinderella held her new sabre up in the air. The blade was long and slender, yet she could feel its heft as she held it in her hand. It had a slight curve and was silver in colour, thus reflecting the sunlight shining in from outside. There were etchings and markings that gave the weapon a sense of elegance. The handle was black and the hilt was the same hue as the blade. 

The look of wonder in Cinderella’s eyes made Christopher smile.

“I turned in a favour with an old friend in Venice,” he explained. “He knows a thing or two about forging a good blade.” 

“I can tell,” Cinderella replied, impressed.

She took a few steps away from Christopher and tried the blade out, swinging it left and right, then practicing a lunging thrust in the air. 

“It’s quite a good thruster, but you won’t run into any problems should you attempt to cut,” Christopher explained, watching her proudly. “It’s graceful, elegant, but practical… just like you.” 

Cinderella was smiling from ear to ear. Although she had only held the blade for a few moments, she felt an immediate feeling of contentment and certainty, a kind of rightness that told her that this sword was meant to be in her hand. With a sense of satisfaction, she slid her new weapon back into its scabbard. 

“So… what do you think?” Christopher asked. Surprisingly, he got his answer a lot quicker than he expected.

Cinderella took a few steps forward and pulled Christopher into a hug, standing on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around him. Her head nestled comfortably in the crook of his neck as she said, “I love it. Thank you.” 

Christopher let out a chuckle, returning his wife’s hug with one of his own. 

When Cinderella let go of him, she was practically glowing. She pressed a quick kiss to his lips, then affixed her attention back on her new sword. 

“So! What should we test this out on?” Cinderella asked. She pulled the sword half way out of its scabbard and carefully ran her thumb across the cutting edge, testing to see if it was sharp, which she soon discovered that it was.

The way she was grinning was very reminiscent of a child receiving a new toy — Christopher still wasn’t sure if he should be amused by this behaviour or concerned by it. Judging by how things were going now, he would probably come to the decision sooner than later. 

“Well, certainly not on me,” he brought up, letting out a slight laugh. “Or any of the palace guards.”

“I’m not interested in hurting anyone,” Cinderella explained simply. “But what’s the point of having a perfectly functional sword around if I don’t get a chance to use it?”

“We could always stab some fruit in the garden.”

“Hell yes, let’s do it!” 

**Author's Note:**

> I did so much research regarding popular swords of the 19th century. Like... I spent so much time internally debating whether Cinderella would wield a sabre or a smallsword.


End file.
